Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Prospective observational study and serosurvey of SARS-CoV-2 infection in asymptomatic healthcare workers at a Canadian tertiary care center. |
| Authors: |
Ferreira, Victor H., Chruscinski, Andrzej, Kulasingam, Vathany, Pugh, Trevor J., Dus, Tamara, Wouters, Brad, Oza, Amit, Ierullo, Matthew, Ku, Terrance, Majchrzak-Kita, Beata, Humar, Sonika T., Bahinskaya, Ilona, Pinzon, Natalia, Zhang, Jianhua, Heisler, Lawrence E., Krzyzanowski, Paul M., Lam, Bernard, Lungu, Ilinca M., Manase, Dorin, Pace, Krista M. |
| Source: |
PLoS ONE; 2/16/2021, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p1-11, 11p |
| Subject Terms: |
MEDICAL personnel, SARS-CoV-2, TERTIARY care, LONGITUDINAL method, SCIENTIFIC observation, MIDDLE East respiratory syndrome, SEROPREVALENCE |
| Abstract: |
Health care workers (HCWs) are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and may play a role in transmitting the infection to vulnerable patients and members of the community. This is particularly worrisome in the context of asymptomatic infection. We performed a cross-sectional study looking at asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs. We screened asymptomatic HCWs for SARS-CoV-2 via PCR. Complementary viral genome sequencing was performed on positive swab specimens. A seroprevalence analysis was also performed using multiple assays. Asymptomatic health care worker cohorts had a combined swab positivity rate of 29/5776 (0.50%, 95%CI 0.32–0.75) relative to a comparative cohort of symptomatic HCWs, where 54/1597 (3.4%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (ratio of symptomatic to asymptomatic 6.8:1). SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among 996 asymptomatic HCWs with no prior known exposure to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.4–3.4%, depending on assay. A novel in-house Coronavirus protein microarray showed differing SARS-CoV-2 protein reactivities and helped define likely true positives vs. suspected false positives. Our study demonstrates the utility of routine screening of asymptomatic HCWs, which may help to identify a significant proportion of infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Complementary Index |
